Glory Days: The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever – When Jordan, the Olympics, ESPN, and Nike Created Professional Sports Entertainment

by L. Jon Wertheim

A rollicking guided tour of one extraordinary summer, when some of the most pivotal and freakishly coincidental stories all collided and changed the way we think about modern sports

The summer of 1984 was a watershed moment in the birth of modern sports when the nation watched Michael Jordan grow from college basketball player to professional athlete and star. That summer also saw ESPN’s rise to media dominance as the country’s premier sports network and the first modern, commercialized, profitable Olympics. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’s rivalry raged, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe reigned in tennis, and Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon made pro wrestling a business, while Donald Trump pierced the national consciousness as a pro football team owner. It was an awakening in the sports world, a moment when sports began to morph into the market-savvy, sensationalized, moneyed, controversial, and wildly popular arena we know today.
 
In the tradition of Bill Bryson’s One America, 1927,  L. Jon Wertheim captures these 90 seminal days against the backdrop of the nostalgia-soaked 1980s, to show that this was the year we collectively traded in our ratty Converses for a pair of sleek, heavily branded, ingeniously marketed Nikes. This was the year that sports went big-time.  

Genres: Sports, History, Nonfiction, Basketball, Music, American History, Pop Culture

324 pages, Hardcover

Published June 15, 2021

About the author

L. Jon Wertheim is the executive editor of Sports Illustrated. A sports journalist with a passion for psychology and economics, he is the author of such New York Times bestsellers as Scorecasting (written with Toby Moskowitz) and You Can’t Make This Up (written with Al Michaels).

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We're going to look back at this as a good summer . . . a very good summer." -- Chicago Bulls assistant coach Fred 'Mad Dog' Carter, regarding the solstitial months of 1984, on page 285

While FM radio superstars Bruce Springsteen and Prince are featured prominently on the book's cover design, Wertheim's Glory Days (title copped from . . . a hit Springsteen song 🫤) focuses much more on the sports world's figures and events in North America during the summer of '84. Although some detractors have stated that there is far too much page time devoted to the eventual NBA legend Michael Jordan - this bygone era was his national debut of sorts, where he was both on the Olympic gold medal-winning basketball team, as well as being selected, in the third overall draft pick, by the Chicago Bulls - he is the central figure of sorts who floats through the loose narrative. While the chapters occasionally veer away to focus more on pop culture - such as the sleeper film The Karate Kid, eccentric pop vocalist Cyndi Lauper teaming with pro-wrestler 'Captain' Lou Albano in a father/daughter act for a music video (remember those?), Michael Jackson's financial blockbuster of a concert tour, or the emergence of the ESPN network as a broadcasting force to be reckoned with - its true heart and soul is the athletes. Author Wertheim has impeccable credentials - he's a Sports Illustrated journalist who was a history major at Yale - so he deftly jumps between household names (besides Jordan) like Wayne Gretsky, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Mike Tyson, and the fierce Larry Bird / 'Magic' Johnson rivalry alternating with chapters on the successful Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, an unusually good season for the perpetual underdog Chicago Cubs, and the upstart but doomed United States Football League. I was barely ten years old when this all occurred - and I can't believe a full four decades (!) have now passed since that eventful summer - so reading Glory Days was a little bit like popping open a proverbial time capsule in a good nostalgic way.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have written this before but when a writer says (year) is the greatest year ever in sports, I humor them because you could more than likely make a case for nearly any year if you wanted to. That’s fine. Of course, they have to sell books.

1984 is a good memorable year even if you take the Orwellian side out of it. There’s the Los Angeles Olympics and the election. These distinguish the year.

Wertheim even narrows it down to the Summer of 84 and does a great job defending it as the one of the most defining summers of our lifetime.

To start with, there is the never seen before greatness of Gretzky, Bird and Magic making the NBA Finals a marquis event, the Olympic Gold Medal Basketball team, other American Olympic contenders (Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis, Mary Decker and so on) and hopefuls (Mike Tyson) tennis superstars John McEnroe, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, and (this book is Northern Indiana/Chicago-centric) a surprisingly competitive Chicago Cubs team.

This book isn’t about the cultural events necessarily as the cover could indicate. Prince and Bruce Springsteen both feature on the cover (and the title is an obvious Boss reference) and released classic albums within three weeks of each other. That’s not there. That said, where it ties to sport, it’s here.

That means ESPN, MTV, The WWF and Hulk Hogan, the McDonalds Olympic promotion, Uebroth’s Olympic planning and Soviet boycott of the games, The Karate Kid (if not surely, the first inspirational sports movie- I remember Chariots of Fire and Breaking Away- but surely the one that set the template for sports movies going forward, and Wertheim contends, probably not wrongly, the explosion of MMA) and the unlikely path that starts with the Jackson’s Victory Tour and ends with the New England Patriots being the most dominant NFL team of all time.

This book is perfect as it relives nostalgia while also introducing new trivia, it’s an easy read but is full of facts, and is one of those books you want to talk about.

Two athletes get the bulk of pages. Martina Navratilova would be special for 1- being as dominant in a sport for a time period as anyone and 2- the first major sports superstar to come out as gay or lesbian on their own terms- but Martina was also arguably the first athlete to prepare as we expect athletes to prepare today- using analytics and cross-training influenced by other sports besides her own.

The other athlete is Michael Jordan who of course, is interesting for many reasons, but among other things, the way Nike changed athletic marketing with Jordan was another big ripple in the metaphorical sports ocean.

There’s even more here, though I covered a bunch. The one thing I would have liked to seen is some kind of timeline. Subjects are grouped by topic, which is probably the right choice but it would be interesting to look at the big picture and see what happened in relation to the time frame of everything else. Still, I really enjoyed it.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really odd to read history you lived through. I'm old enough to have gone to several 1984 Olympic events (team handball for life, yo), and to see how the Olympics were an energizing force for sports, LA, and the country. I grew up idolizing the showtime Lakers and hating the Celtics and being amazed by Michael Jordan. I didn't really understand the USFL, but more spots were good in my book, and my dad and I were amazed by the Aussie rules football the new ESPN channel showed at all hours. Tennis wasn't really my thing, but it was hard not to be wowed by Martina Navratilova.

All that to say, the mid 1980s (and 1984 in particular) were a great time for sports, and, as this book details, was when the seeds of many modern sports and cultural trends were first planted. Nike and the rise of athlesiure? Air Jordan was drafted in 1984. Heck, the rise of drafts as mega events in themselves was foreshadowed by the first televised draft in 1984. The 1984 Superbowl had an ad for a scrappy little company called Apple releasing their flagship product the Mac. The rise of corporate sponsors/overlords in sports and culture? Look at the Olympics again and the Jackson Five tour (sponsored by Pepsi). Donald Trump was in the news for suing the NFL, for Pete's sake. The Karate Kid doomed us to innumerable underdog saga sports movies. And Cindi Lauper boosted her music career with an appearance at the first ever WrestleMania.

Just a ton of things to fit into one summer and a ton of things that have influenced (USA) sports culture nearly 40 years later. Wertheim does a great job telling these stories, juggling the different plot threads, and making these events interesting and compelling. A very good read.

**Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Jesse R Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book was a decent read. Tired of reading about Michael Jordan which this book has many pages dedicated to him. Decent summer read.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book which I enjoyed, but it took me WAY too long to complete both reading it and my review for it. Not the fault of the book, completely mine. Life got in the way.

As a young person, I didn't enjoy reading non-fiction, I found it to be boring and not nearly as active and exciting as fiction. Since I have become an adult, I realized that my enjoyment or otherwise of non-fiction had a lot to do with HOW it was written and if I had an interest in the information being presented or not.

This book was both well-written and an interesting topic for me. It DID take a bit for me to truly get into it, there are a lot of threads being tied together and discussed, so at first I would be chugging along on one topic and then it would abruptly to me end and another new topic would be brought up. Once a foundation for all of the topics was built, then the structure of the book started to make sense and become more enjoyable to me.

Some of this book was fascinating and some of it (the Trump and Michael Jackson sections for example) were ... difficult to read. It wasn't political re: Trump or negative about Michael Jackson, but I try to avoid anything even remotely related to politics and what happened with Michael Jackson was just SAD.

This was a Buddy Read and I was about nine months late on finishing this one...so sorry fellow Buddy Reader. (In my defense, this BR reads MUCH faster than I do. But nine months is still somewhat excessive...)

I recommend this book if you are interested in recent-ish history and to learn about pivot points in the arenas of sports, music and entertainment. It really was incredibly interesting and I am glad that I (finally) read it.

4, I heart the 80s, stars.

[Kyle Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alt title “Jordan’s summer of 1984 and like 3 other things. Also Jordan is in this book, did I mention that?”

[Larry (LPosse1) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun book to start my summer of reading. A Chicago Centric text that was right up my alley! A nostalgic trip down memory lane! Yes- I was engaged with the stories of 1984. Ryno, the boss, non bald MJ and tennis. 1984 was the high water mark for the sport for sure!!
Picture me with my skinny lapels and cool new wave hot pink rock lobster skinny tie! I’m 60 now, but what a cool dude in 1984!!!
Man, I sure remember sleeping out at soldier field for that Springsteen show. All the games in the Bleachers at Wrigley. What a great summer! Glory Days!!!
Well written, fast paced and I loved all of the MJ stuff. Highly recommend for my GenX friends

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

1984 was a year that was not only popularized by George Orwell's novel written 35 years earlier, but also was a year that was a watershed one in several sports, most notably professional basketball, tennis and the Summer Olympics. Those moments and what they meant in the history of not only sports but also for social and political movements are captured in this excellent book by long-time Sports Illustrated (SI) writer L. Jon Wertheim.

The best passages are those about basketball and tennis, two sports he covered regularly for SI. The passages on Michael Jordan, especially near the end of the book, are very compelling. This is true whether they are about his basketball or his marketing appeal, especially for a relatively unknown shoe company at the time called Nike. The reader will learn much about the 1984 Jordan, especially his connection with Nike. Of course, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are included as well, including a great chapter on the NBA Finals that year with Bird's Celtics winning a thrilling 7 game series over Johnson's Lakers.

As for the tennis, the main personalities of his focus are the two players who were nearly unbeaten that entire year, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova. While the stories on McEnroe are good, Navratilova's story is even better, especially as she was one of the first athletes to speak out on social issues. For her, there were plenty – an immigrant who became an American by defection, her coming out as a lesbian, her hiring of a transgender coach, Dr. Renee Richards and even her training regiment. For the latter, she developed a muscular tone, considered to be taboo for female athletes at the time. I found this connection to many of the female athletes today who are activists like Megan Rapinoe and Serena Williams quite fascinating.

There are other important athletes and teams of from that year, most notably the Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. Instead of focusing solely on the boycott by the Soviet Union and other communist nations, the text focuses on the athletes and the organizer of the games. Portrayals of Mary Decker and Mary Lou Retton are notable, but the best writing on the Games was about the director, Peter Ueberroth and his determination to make the Games not only memorable but also profitable. His success with them led to him being named the new commissioner of baseball that year. Throw in some writing about Wayne Gretzky, Ryne Sandberg and the Chicago Cubs and even Mike Tyson trying out for the Olympic boxing team and you have a great book that captures the sports pulse for that summer.

I wish to thank Houghton Mifflin for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Dave Schoettinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wertheim ends this narrative by quoting Fred Carter in October 1984 telling Kevin Loughery, "We're going to look back at this as a good summer". Since Carter and Loughery were, respectively, the assistant coach and head coach of the Chicago Bulls, a franchise that had started the summer by drafting Michael Jordan, Carter's prediction qualifies as a massive understatement. It is the premise of this book that the summer of 1984 changed not only the fortunes of the Chicago Bulls and the NBA, but also, as its subtitle claims "Sports and Culture Forever".

Although this is a fairly presumptuous claim, Wertheim lays out his case with various narratives, including the improbable connection between Michael Jackson's hair catching fire in the summer of 1984 and the New England Patriots becoming the dominant NFL franchise of the 21st century. He credits Peter Ueberroth and the 1984 Olympics with giving new life to the Olympic Movement by showing that the games could be made profitable, as well as relating how the 1984 Chicago Cubs showed that they did not have to be permanent residents of the second division.

Through it all is a constant theme of television, especially cable television pouring money into all level of sports in their search for content, making fortunes for team owners, players, coaches and educational institutions. I'm not sure that Wertheim incontrovertibly proves his case, but his efforts do make for interesting reading, especially those of us old enough to remember that summer.

[Ken Heard · Rating 5 out of 5]

1984 was a pretty pivotal year in sports. Michael Jordan changed the NBA, leaving college that year, playing on the Olympic team and then being drafted by the Bulls. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced off in the NBA finals that year, WWF (and later WWE) took off in the wrestling world, the Cubs looked decent for a while and Donald Trump got involved in football.

ABC purchased the fledgling ESPN and made into the sports empire it is today.

Jon Wertheim looks at all the things that occurred that year that helped define sports as they are today. It's a well-written book, almost chronological of about three months in sports. The opening is as good as it gets, including news that happened that time in addition to sports. The context is amazing and it's hard to fathom all that happened that summer.

It's heavy on Jordan, so if you're not a fan, you may be a bit put off. I don't like tennis and skimmed over a couple of chapters on that. If you lived in 1984 and experienced what Wertheim writes of, it adds more context and makes the read more enjoyable.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is Glory Days and there is a montage of people on the cover. One of them is Bruce Springsteen, who sang that song. I did not think this was a book about him. But there were only one or two paragraphs related to him in the entire book. There is also a picture of Mary Lou Retton in the cover. She got a paragraph. There is a picture of Prince in the cover. I don’t recall him being in the book and forgot to check the Index after I was done. But I’m guessing he got a paragraph.

Anyway, I was 20 in the summer of 1984 and it was a big year for sports and pop culture in general. And nostalgia books are always fun. I’m sure there is a book about 1994 that resonates with those 20 at the time.

So why only three stars? Because this book is mainly about Michael Jordan. Even the chapters on the Olympics are mostly built around him. The author must have been born in Chicago as the Cubs get a big mention also. Too much Jordan, who has been written about extensively and not enough of other things.

It’s a quick read but this book could have been so much more.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually amazed that all of these sporting events, besides the Olympics, happened in the span of 90 days in 1984. I really liked this one, a quick read. The main flaw with this book was that some stories got 20 pages (mostly Michael Jordan) while others got 4. I would have liked more details about the Olympics.

[Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview (albeit somewhat Chicago-centric) of the goings on in the summer of 1984 in sports. Michael Jordan, as he usually does, takes center stage, but Ryne Sandberg is represented. I was a 12-year-old Cubs fan, so I had fond memories of that summer.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the summer of 1984, I wasn't really plugged into what was going on in sports and pop culture at the time. In my defense, my fifth birthday was that October. But this new book offers a pretty good look back at a summer when sports and culture took on dimensions little understood at the time, but with a huge impact for our future.

"Glory Days" by L. Jon Wertheim is more about sports than culture per se (the cover art seems a little on the misleading side), but once I got over that, I found it a quick, entertaining read. 1984, after all, had a lot to recommend it as a sports milestone: there were the Los Angeles Olympics, where Mary Lou Retton made her name and become a national icon; the suddenly good Chicago Cubs, who didn't seem cursed so much as blessed as the season wound down and they made it to the post-season; and the rise of Wayne Gretzky, the most famous hockey player of his generation (and arguably ever), who finally won the first of many Stanley Cup finals. But Michael Jordan walked away from 1984 with the brightest future: drafted by the Chicago Bulls, he would first play for the gold-winning American basketball team in the Olympics and put on a clinic in how to negotiate for franchising deals with shoe makers (Nike would unveil his best-selling "Air Jordan" line later that year). Plus, a little-known option on the cable TV dial would begin to cement its place into the hearts of sports-loving fans everywhere; it was in 1984 that ESPN began to be the "worldwide leader in sports," thanks to some savvy business deals that increased its reach.

Culture does get some mention here, often as it intersected with sports: Cyndi Lauper and the WWE teamed up to offer MTV its first shot at non-music-video programming in a precursor to Wrestlemania, while "The Karate Kid" helped turn martial arts into box-office gold again a decade after Bruce Lee's death. And the story of how Michael Jackson's ill-fated "Victory" tour helped give birth to Robert Kraft's dynasty with the New England Patriots is worth the price of admission.

I originally came to this book thinking it would be more about culture and sports, not just sports, and was a little disappointed early on to see that there wouldn't be as much discussion about the cinema or music of 1984 as I'd thought. But once I got over that, I was able to enjoy this book a lot. It helps that Wertheim is an engaging and talented writer, and the way that he discusses things like Martina Navratilova's lonely status as an openly gay and openly outspoken athlete is done with sensitive and sometimes humorous warmth (I speak of the anecdote of Martina and Chris Evert sharing a bagel while waiting for their long-delayed match to start). I will dock it some points for getting the Bruce Springsteen song that the book's title is taken from stuck in my head, but other than that, it's hard to fault this book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reads as a series of long-winded (albeit very well-researched) vignettes on sports and culture in the summer of 1984.

It should really be titled, Glory Days: The Summer of Michael Jordan and Some Other Stuff, given how much of it was dedicated to Jordan’s NBA and Olympic beginnings. More words were spent describing the summer weather he experienced in Indianapolis than on other equally influential sports and culture moments (Mary Lou Retton gets half a page).

There’s a lot to learn, but the overly saccharine descriptions of the days of yore and the disjointed jumps between chapters made this feel a lot longer than it is.

[Halle Wassink · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This was the summer that sports officially became entertainment."

I really admire the thoughtful reflection on the summer of sports in 1984. The array of sports/entertainment events that Wertheim observed was a highlight for me as well as the influence said events had on athletics, media, and athletes today. I'm stopping myself from saying there were better chapters than others and am instead saying that I found some chapters more interesting than others. Defiantly sped-read through the chapters on wrestling and NCAA laws and savored the chapters on the NBA and Olympics.

[Jackie Lantern · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb compares this book to the products of Bill Bryson, and honestly, and I found this to be much better than anything Bryson has ever written. Don’t sell yourself short! That said, I was initially interested in this book because I was born in the summer of 1984, so I wanted to know more about my origin story. This piece filled me in on everything I missed in a detailed way that was always interesting and never boring. Nice work!

[Jillrw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly good stories, too much Michael Jordan and not enough about the 1984 Olympics. The book and stories could have benefited from many more photos.
Photos that were included didn’t add much to the value of the book, example: photo of an adult Ralph Macchio instead of a photo from his 1984 movie that was featured in the book.

[Mickey Hodges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a fan of sports and 80’s pop culture, this book was pretty much written for me. It’s not the greatest thing ever written by any means but it hit a lot of great memories for me. It is pretty crazy how one summer shaped so much of sports as we know it today. A fun read that I recommend.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s amazing how many important cultural moments happens in this summer. What I loved most about it is that each chapter, or storyline, could be its own book and that leaves you really wanting more in the best way possible.

[Thomas J. Rodilosso · Rating 3 out of 5]

very fun to read but theme not woven together as much as I had hoped

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember most of this stuff, but it was fun reading about all these great sports moments in one place. Very well written and readable. Thanks to Goodreads.

[Stu Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent look at the summer of ‘84 and all the things that shaped modern sports in that 90 day period (LA Olympics, Jordan, Bird vs Magic, Gretzky, Tyson)

[Anita Elder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge sports fan and rarely watch sports on TV, so I wasn't sure how much I'd like this book. It had enough anecdotes to keep me interested , though.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turns out a lot happened that year besides the LA Olympics.

[Reece Wassink · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It just so happens that many were bunched together in one magical summer.” Eeeee I really liked this book. It was so fun reading all the random connections to this summer and various athletes.

[Luca Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

This writer makes a very compelling case why the summer of 1984 was the most influential and important in sports history. And I might be on his side! Really fun read that hit on a multitude of topics, shout-out to my friend Tree for recommending this.

[Chuck Abdella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wertheim has come up with a really clever concept, linking sports, music, entertainment, etc. all during the summer of 1984. He argues that this was a 3-month span when everything changed and we are still feeling the effects 30+ years later. Whether true or not, this is a nostalgia-filled trip back to a time when the world was very different. I was 10 in '84 and this book brought back all kinds of memories. A fun read.

[Rick Zinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The summer of 1984 was just one of the years, a period of time when the seeds of the world we live in were planted. The book mainly looks at sports but makes note of other things like the first woman on a major party Presidential ticket, iconic music by Prince and Bruce Springsteen and on a sad note one of the first mass shootings. As it was my 19th year, I do remember it as quite a time.

A Supreme Court changes the NCAA, ABC buys ESPN, the USFL vs NFL lawsuit and Donald Trumps role as the owner of a USFL team are discussed. Wayne Gretzky wins his first Stanley Cup, the Chicago Cubs go to the Playoffs for the first time in decades. John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova play great Tennis. Mike Tyson doesn’t make the Olympic team.

The book is probably too heavy in describe every breath Micheal Jordan took that year. It’s a subject that fits in with the theme of the book, the Olympics, the draft and the shoe deal, but the book fanboys a little too hard at times.

The chapters dealing with Olympics are very good, yes it talks about the McDonald’s scratch off game.

It’s a great book, the author doesn’t a great job of drawing lines from the summer to today. It’s a light read and a lot of fun.

[Danielle Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book about sports in the summer of 1984, there was a serious lack of Olympic coverage. I enjoyed learning about Michael Jordan's rise to the NBA, but the focus on him was a bit much. Easily half the book.

Whoever designed the cover did a poor job. Why was Mary Lou Retton featured on the cover when there was only a couple of sentences (maybe 2 or 3) about her?

And did we seriously need a whole chapter about Donald Trump briefly owning the ASFL's New Jersey Generals?

This book was definitely not for me. Had I known Mary Lou would have been reduced to less than a paragraph while Donald Trump got a full chapter, I wouldn't have picked it up.


Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.